Nigerian newspapers · 13 April 2020
Wastewater Can Indicate Presence of COVID-19 in Communities - Scientists
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Following the discovery that traces of COVID-19 can be found in wastewater, researchers worldwide have begun analyzing wastewater as a way of estimating the total number of COVID-19 infections in a community and to serve as an early-warning sign if the virus returns.
According to Nature, a peer-reviewed journal, given that it is impossible for everyone to be tested, this method could also be used to detect the virus if it returns to communities. So far, researchers have found traces of the virus in wastewater in the Netherlands, the United States and Sweden.
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Analysing wastewater, the journal reports, involves using water that goes through the drainage system to a treatment facility. This way, the researchers can track infectious diseases that are excreted in urine or faeces, such as SARS-CoV-2.
According to Gertjan Medema, a microbiologist at KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, one treatment plant can capture wastewater from more than one million people.
Monitoring influent at this scale could provide better estimates for how widespread the coronavirus is than testing, because wastewater surveillance can account for those who have not been tested and have only mild or no symptoms, says Medema, who has detected SARS-CoV-2 genetic material — viral RNA — in several treatment plants in the Netherlands.
“Health authorities are only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” she noted.
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However, to quantify the scale of infection in a population from wastewater samples, researchers will need to find out how much viral RNA is excreted in faeces, and extrapolate the number of infected people in a population from concentrations of viral RNA in wastewater samples.
Researchers will also need to ensure that they are looking at a representative sample of what is being excreted by the population and not just one snapshot in time, and that their tests can detect the virus at low levels. This was according to scientists representing the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences in Australia, a research centre that advises the state government on environmental-health risks.
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In support of the findings, an infectious-disease researcher at the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health, Ana Maria de Roda Husman, said infection-control measures, such as social distancing, will probably suppress the current pandemic, noting that the virus could return once such measures are lifted.